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In terms of map editing, there's very little I would change here beyond the changes already made to Tastes Like Evil (no infinite beetles, extra pattern buffer). However, we can't avoid the question of what to do about the Reaver Fusion Mace any longer. After thinking about it for a while, there are a few possible solutions to the problem:
- Leave the fusion mace as-is. The game becomes too easy if the player invests some time in building up health, since I'm sure it's not possible to enforce an upper limit. I personally feel that the presence of this ability does not detract from the game all that much if one is playing for the story's sake, and that the time required to charge up to near-invulnerability would put off many players who consider this (but see idea #3).
- Tweak the levels so that it's much harder to get some time alone to charge up indefinitely. It would be difficult to do this without making the game much harder in general.
- Make the fusion mace significantly less powerful, so that gaining a ridiculous amount of health takes much longer. However, this would not prevent cheating outright, just make it more difficult, and it would also make the game more difficult if the player did *not* spend a lot of time building up health.
- Remove the issue entirely by giving the second trigger some other function that does not recharge health. We would then have to provide health by some other means, placing powerups or rechargers throughout future levels.
- An idea stolen from American McGee: Every kill earns you a small amount of health. This would be done by making every monster drop an item that the mace's recharger function would use as ammo. This is, however, a fairly bizarre gameplay mechanic for a Marathon scenario (even more so than anything else in RED), and it would be difficult to communicate what's going on and how to use it to the player without breaking the fourth wall (granted the fusion mace recharger has this problem already).
Comments? Other ideas?
Now is probably also a good time to mention the single change to be made on Up From The Depths: Write a proper exit terminal for the giant Ian clone and link it back to Chaos Inc, the small transition level following To The Liver so that the story can be continued after visiting the secret.
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